The Dictionary of Sydney was archived in 2021.
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Koori Knockout
PIX article on the Redfern All Blacks 'Aboriginal Footballers' 1946, PIX, 5 October 1946 p28 This week is NAIDOC week, and as it happens, the decider for the State of Origin rugby league, so what better topic then the Koori Knockout…
Leigh Straw, Angel of Death Dulcie Markham, Australia’s most beautiful bad woman
Leigh Straw, Angel of Death Dulcie Markham, Australia’s most beautiful bad woman HarperCollins, 2019, ISBN 978073333966 (p/bk), pp1-312, RRP $32.99 Angel of Death is the third book by writer and historian Leigh Straw that focus on Australian women and crime. It follows…
Thar She Blows!
Two whale's teeth scrimshaw c1800s, both depicting whaling scenes, Dixson Collection, State Library of NSW (SAFE/DR 40 / Item a and Item b) Whales have been in the news of late, given that it's the whale migration season and that Japan…
Australia's first serial killer
Frank Butler, alias Frank Harwood, alias Frank Ash, Darlinghurst Gaol Photographic Description Book 4 May 1897, Pic: State Archives & Records New South Wales (2138_a006_a00603_6061000098r) This week on 2SER Breakfast, Tess talked to Dr Rachel Franks about the 'al-fresco murderer' Frank…
The Last Snake Man of La Perouse
Dancer Paula Pratt and snake expert George Cann at La Perouse 1947, PIX, 22 February 1947, p8 This week on 2SER Breakfast, Tess talked to Minna Muhlen-Schulte about George Cann, the 'snake man of La Perouse'. Listen to Minna and Tess…
High rise living
Wyoming Chambers, Sydney's newest skyscraper 1911, Building Magazine, Vol. 4, No. 45 (12 May, 1911). p45 via Trove In the latest census data available, Sydney has over 450,000 flats, units or apartments making up 28% of the domestic buildings. This is…
James Dunk, Bedlam at Botany Bay
James Dunk, Bedlam at Botany Bay NewSouth Books, 2019, 244 pp. (plus notes, select bibliography and index), ISBN: 9781742236179, p/bk, AUS$34.99 Looking at the great corpus of works that exist on Australia's colonial history, there are so many available to inspire (and…
On your bike!
Madame Franzina, bicycle performer 1876 , courtesy Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW (PXA 362/v3/28r) Monday just been (3 June) was officially World Bicycle Day. You say you've never heard of it? Well, neither had I until the Dictionary of Sydney tweeted…
Edward Smith Hall and The Monitor
Edward Smith Hall, 1852, by Charles Rodius, courtesy Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW (P2/7) This week on 2SER Breakfast, Dr Rachel Franks and host Tess Connery talked about the founders of one of Sydney's earliest newspapers, Edward Smith Hall. Listen…
Sydney through a novelist's eyes
Ruth Park, pre 1947, courtesy Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW (P1/Park, Ruth) Melbourne claims to be the City of Literature, but this week Sydney is all things literary as we settle into the Sydney Writer's Festival. Listen to the whole…